Heritage Park exhibit to honour Famous 5 suffragettes

Jessica Barrett, Calgary Herald06.19.2014

A living statue of Nellie McClung stood outside the building at the opening of the official opening of the Famous 5 Centre of Canadian Women at Heritage Park on June 20, 2014. The replica home is of Nellie McClung’s former Calgary residence.Colleen De Neve
/ Calgary Herald

Nellie McClung's Great Granddaughter Caitlin McClung and Grandson David McClung were on hand for the opening of the official opening of the Famous 5 Centre of Canadian Women at Heritage Park on June 20, 2014. The replica home is of Nellie McClung's former Calgary residence.Colleen De Neve
/ Calgary Herald

Heritage Park President and CEO Alida Visbach stood on the porch following the opening of the official opening of the Famous 5 Centre of Canadian Women at Heritage Park on June 20, 2014. The replica home is of Nellie McClung’s former Calgary residence.Colleen De Neve
/ Calgary Herald

A living statue of Nellie McClung stood outside the building at the opening of the official opening of the Famous 5 Centre of Canadian Women at Heritage Park on June 20, 2014. The replica home is of Nellie McClung’s former Calgary residence.Colleen De Neve
/ Calgary Herald

Colleen De Neve/ Calgary Herald CALGARY, AB --JUNE 20, 2014 -- Nellie McClung's Great Granddaughter Caitlin McClung and Grandson David McClung were on hand for the opening of the official opening of the Famous 5 Centre of Canadian Women at Heritage Park on June 20, 2014. The replica home is of Nellie McClung's former Calgary residence. (Colleen De Neve/Calgary Herald) (For City story by Jessica Barrett) 00056551A SLUG: FAMOUS 5 OPENINGColleen De Neve
/ Calgary Herald

Caitlin McClung never met her great-grandmother, but she carries on her legacy in more than just name.

As the direct descendent of Nellie McClung, one of the so-called Famous 5 suffragettes who were instrumental in earning Canadian women the right to vote, hold public office and be considered persons under the law, the younger McClung says she never took the achievements of her namesake for granted.

“I was always raised with social justice in my blood and I go through life being inspired by the challenges that Nellie took on head on,” she said Friday at the opening of a new permanent exhibit at Heritage Park Historical Village that is dedicated to educating Albertans about the hard work and hard-won victories of Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Irene Parlby and Emily Murphy.

The Famous 5 Centre of Canadian Women opened Friday and will offer daily programming, costumed interpreters and Sunday afternoon tea throughout the summer, all in a modified replica of Calgary home where Nellie McClung raised her five children while serving in the Alberta Legislature, penning dozens of books and articles and fighting for the rights of future generations of Canadian women.

“We have all these female premiers, and that would never have happened if Nellie McClung and the Famous 5 didn’t fight for the vote,” said Caitlin McClung, who has served as a high-level political aide in Ontario provincial politics.

“They fought, they really did. And something that I find extremely inspiring is that they found each other. They found a common ground and that moved mountains.”

Each distinguished women in their own right, the Famous 5 came together and earned their moniker in support of Murphy’s challenge of the British North America Act, which did not consider women persons under the law. After helping enact laws that guaranteed widows a right to their husband’s property after they passed away, Murphy’s name had been frequently submitted as a potential candidate for the Senate of Canada. But she was told that as a woman, and not a person, she would not be eligible for appointment to the public office.

Murphy then tapped Alberta MLAs McClung, Parlby and McKinney, the first woman in the British Empire to be elected to a legislature, to join her petition in fighting the clause. Edwards, a brilliant legal mind and founder of the predecessor to today’s YWCA, also joined the case. The five faced relentless sexism and were criticized for neglecting their families in favour of activism, but won the 1929 case on appeal, celebrating with a “pink tea” at the Palliser hotel.

But as important as their work was in forming the Canada we have today, the Famous 5 are often overlooked when it comes to Canadian history and school curricula, said Heritage Park president and CEO Alida Visbach, something she hopes the new exhibit will remedy.

“Heritage Park is in the business of telling stories,” she told the crowd gathered for Friday’s opening. “One of the stories that has remained pretty silent is that of Canadian women. Being in Alberta, we felt where better to start than with the story of five, brave, persistent and victorious Albertan women who joined together to make the law recognize women as persons.”

The centre, she said, has been three years in the making with more than a year of construction on the house, which has been modelled after McClung’s beltline home. The design has been enhanced to include classroom, meeting and banquet space to allow for educational programming and special events, like weddings.

For David McClung, Nellie’s grandson, the opening of the centre was a great validation of the efforts of not only his grandmother, but the pride of the entire family that still bears her name.

Timeline of suffrage in Canada

1916: Four western provinces give women the right to vote in provincial elections

1917: Women in the armed forces or related to serving men can vote in federal elections

1918: Women over age 21 can vote in federal elections (excluding most women of Asian or Aboriginal heritage, many of whom were not allowed to vote until the 1940s)

1925: Newfoundland, not yet part of Canada, is the last Atlantic province to grant women the vote

1940: Quebec is the last Canadian province to allow women to vote in provincial elections, 20 years after they were granted the same franchise federally.

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